Crime Town

Pegasus Quincy, a rookie deputy on temporary assignment in a sleepy mountain town, expects a quiet summer citing jaywalkers and writing traffic tickets. Fate intervenes when a dead body turns up in an old copper mining pit. The man is a three-time loser disowned by even his own mother. Peg’s sheriff boss declares the death an accident and tells her to “move on”. She wants to agree, but then her office is ransacked and her assistant kidnapped...Will they find the killer before he strikes again?

Life in a small town creates understandings...and suspicions. When Mike Carraday has a near-death experience, he calls on Jonas Kirk to help him sort through the evidence. Mike gets answers, and Kirk gets insight.

In 1974, at the age of 14, I was abducted, beaten and raped in my hometown of Lincoln, Rhode Island by a recidivist, pedophile predator. He was arrested and indicted but never went to trial. He never went to trial because he was brutally beaten to death in the streets of Providence before his court date. Thirty-eight years after his murder, no one has ever been charged with the crime. Men in My Town is my personal story. It's a gripping suspense novel with a storyline that includes characters based on real people, real places and real events. It's a story about men in my neighborhood, men who watched over me during the time between my assault and my assailant's murder.

School is out in the summer of 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. For Frances Robinson, a 15-year-old daydreamer with a crush on her teacher, John T. Scopes, summer vacation promises tennis and Coca-Colas from her father's drug store. But when Frances' father, the school board chairman, has Scopes arrested for teaching evolution, the sleepiest place on earth becomes a hotbed for famous thinkers, including H.L. Mencken, Clarence Darrow, and William Jennings Bryan.

Even the most incorruptible juror can be unwittingly influenced by others' opinions in the digital age, but more sinister forces are at work: Jury tampering has reached all-time highs. Unexpected verdicts are coming down more and more often, indicating that shadowy groups may be blackmailing jurors - and leaving the American justice system in shambles. Is impartiality even possible anymore?

In trouble more often than not, guilty of assault, manslaughter, and honorably discharged from the military by the skin of his teeth, David "Bugs" McKenna can't seem to help doing the right thing at the wrong time - or the wrong thing, every chance he gets. But when he drifts his way into Ragtown, Texas, things seem to finally be turning around for Bugs. Still, things are likely to get ugly, fast - and odds are, it'll have something to do with the bombshell wife of Bugs' new employer....

Desert Town is dark crime fiction for those who have a taste for the perverse and violent. It was made into a major film, Desert Fury, starring Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott and Mary Astor. It’s the story of seventeen year old Paula Haller’s transition into womanhood as she defies her mother, Fritzi’s dominance. Fritzi runs the small town of Chuckawalla including the Purple Sage casino and saloon as well as a bordello or two.

Feeling oppressed by their economic and social status, the three Duntz brothers seek revenge on the wealthy upper class, and historical Salisbury becomes their target. The brothers set fire to the Salisbury town hall, a 235-year-old symbol of the town's proud heritage. But when Earl Morey confesses to seeing one of the brothers commit the crime, he is found shot to death one early October morning.

The wife of popular Florida Congressman (and prospective Senatorial candidate) Clegg Caffery is murdered. FBI Special Agent Matt Thurston begins an investigation that leads him from the Pentagon to the small town of Clewiston, Florida, in search of a photographer responsible for the photo found in the murdered woman's hand. He arrives too late. The man has committed suicide.

Deputy Sheriff Nick Rogers found out small-town life meant adjusting to two things - gossips and Laney Cavanaugh. And neither was much help in solving a bridal shower murder. Some days it appeared like everyone in Whitehorse had a secret - including their new lawman. And falling for Laney wasn’t a good way to maintain a low profile. Nick might have been new to Whitehorse, but he wasn’t above getting his hands dirty.

Beaufort is in North Carolina's 'Inner Banks,' and it's where Stormie Arrington calls home. Stormie is a feisty, stubborn, strong Alabama-born and raised woman who just happened to have had the misfortune of marrying the wrong man. Ben Arrington is a well-known prosecutor who married Stormie for reasons that are all his own. Ben wants to be the next governor of North Carolina, and he'll do anything to make that happen. When FBI Agent Nathan Emerson arrives to investigate the mysterious deaths and disappearances of a few local girls, he stumbles across a conspiracy.

Jude Gray has worked hard to bring a steady equilibrium to life on Malvern Farm and things are going well. The only fly in the ointment is the foul addition of a new face in the village: staunch townie and chauvinistic sleaze, Des Smith. Jude has nothing but sympathy for his caring, patient wife, Loretta, who has become a regular visitor to the farm for a cup of tea and a chat. But things take a turn for the worse when a hit and run outside The Lamb brings death once again to the village. Is it an accident or is something more sinister afoot?

When the body of a barista is found in the once-pristine Alaskan snow, Anchorage homicide detective DeHavilland Beans is gutted to recognize the young woman, Jolene. He’d bought coffee from her every morning and knew her as a bright college student working her way through school. Devastated by the murder and by the life cut short, Beans vows to find the killer. Since scavengers damaged the body, obtaining any usable evidence is impossible, even with the assistance of wildlife expert Raisa Ingalls, Beans’s ex. When the body of another woman is found, a serial killer is suspected.

As lawman, rancher, and Korean War veteran, Ty Dawson has his share of problems in the southern Oregon county he calls home. Despite how rural it is, Meriwether can't keep modernity at bay. The 1970s have changed the United States—and Meriwether won't be spared. A standoff looms when the US Fish & Wildlife Service seeks to separate longtime cattleman KC Sheridan from his water supply—ensuring the death of his livestock. If that's not enough trouble, a Portland detective is found dead in a fly-fishing resort cabin.

Set in 1959, the year the music died, The Smoke in Our Eyes is a cinematic, clock-ticking saga set in a small Montana town. When a fatal car accident shatters ten-year-old Lucas's world, he finds himself confronting crime and vengeance, humor and heroism, all against the backdrop of growing up.

When builder Mark Poynter discovers a murder on his worksite all of his financial problems suddenly seem a lot closer to home: was this a warning his debts are overdue? Suspected of being the killer and worried at being the intended victim, the murder only makes Mark's money problems worse, leading him to turn to the local villain, Hamlet, who has his own unique repayment plan in mind for Mark. When two more deaths plunge him even further into debt, Mark finds himself faced with a choice - help the police and clear his name or help the villain and clear his debt.

Natasha Bell was a juvenile delinquent. Years later, she harbors a dark secret from her youth. She never expects to work at a place like the Trevino Center for Health and Wellness, a secluded rehabilitation hospital that treats the nation’s richest patients. But when patients mysteriously die, leaving their fortunes to the elusive Trevino family, Natasha must confront her past and uncover the scam inside the Center.

Eric Logan had just turned 16 and was looking forward to an exciting summer. Sitting in his secret spot near Lake Tranquility in the town of Eagle, Wyoming, Eric was making plans of adventure. Until an older boy spoke to Eric. He was tall, and had dirty hair hanging to his shoulders, yellow teeth and knew Eric’s nickname, Runner. He said his name was DeSade and Eric and nine other boys were going to be members of his gang, the Under My Thumb gang. Twenty years later, Logan is a Detective with the Eagle Police Department. He is called out to an unusual homicide.

Peace was always an elusive thing for Detective Carter Boyce, even before his wife died. Since then, living has become even harder. Now, investigating what looks like a murder suicide, Carter begins piecing back together a life he didn’t even know was broken. He stumbles back into his childhood neighborhood, where Old Man Kopchek is still missing a leg, but none of his acerbic wit. The old man begins teaching him the magic of savoring the mundane and the seemingly unimportant.

Old secrets. Missing teenagers. In this small island town, something horrifying is afoot. A mysterious young girl seems to bring out powerful abilities in Emma's special-needs son. As she combs her small Danish island for clues about both mysteries, she realizes the killer and the strange girl are somehow connected. Before the killer strikes again, Emma must risk it all to uncover the frightening truth about what lies beneath her isolated island home.